V. Khlebnikov’s “Bobaobi sang lips...” in Chinese reception

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries in China, the understanding of the modernist trends of the Russian Silver Age deepened and expanded. The perception of futurism is subject to scientific and creative rethinking. The number of representatives of the Russian futurist movement who deserve the attention of Chinese specialists in translation, research, and critical activities is increasing. The reception of V. Khlebnikov’s work, taking into account the comprehension of futurist aesthetics and his poetic theory, determines the problems of modern Chinese studies of Russian futurism. The authors examine the theoretical and practical reception of V. Khlebnikov’s works in China, analyze the perception of V. Khlebnikov’s work by two Chinese specialists - Wang Zonghu (the main expert in the theory of abstruse language) and Zheng Tiwu (the main translator of the poet’s work in China). Identification of the degree of adequacy of the perception of the poet’s language experiments is carried out using the example of a comparative analysis of translations of the poem “Bobeobi lips sang…” into Chinese. The Chinese reader owes the discovery of V. Khlebnikov as the theorist and founder of Russian futurism to the skill of researchers and translators.

Keywords

• china
• poetic language
• language experiment
• futuristic aesthetics
• wang zonghu
• zheng tiu